Twenty Years Of AM Ears

Don Kirshner has died.  He was one of the top music producers of his era, but was more than just a behind-the-scenes guy, appearing on TV to introduce acts on his show, and, better, being parodied by Paul Shaffer on Saturday Night Live. (According to Shaffer, Kirshner was lively in person, almost the opposite of the zombified man who appeared before the camera.)

Shaffer mocked how Kirshner seemed to care more about the people behind the act than the act itself.  But why not?  He knew where the real power lay.

After having worked with Bobby Darin in the late '50s, Kirshner--still in his 20s--became a top publisher and producer, helping to shape the Brill Building sound.  He became president of Screen Gems, the song publishing branch of Columbia Pictures, so it fell to him to provide songs for The Monkees, a new TV show starring a fake band.

He threw Boyce & Hart and Goffin & King and Neil Diamond and Neil Sedaka at them, creating an act whose success was only matched by The Beatles.  Their first album, The Monkees, was at #1 for 13 weeks. Their second, More Of The Monkees, was at #1 for 18 weeks.  Aside from an occasional Mike Nesmith tune, the group did little more than sing on the tracks. While the band was mocked by hippies, their music was actually some of the best pop-rock of the era.

Unfortunately, this being the mid-60s, and integrity a big deal, the band was unhappy with this arrangement.  Kirshner met with the boys to present them with million-dollar checks, but Nesmith was so displeased he put his fist through the wall.  Kirshner was out and the Monkees had more say--and sales were never the same.

Kirshner's next big act was an even better deal for him--The Archies.  An animated band that didn't even exist except in the studio.  Their big hit, "Sugar, Sugar," was the top single of 1969.

In the 70s, he created Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, which ran for most of the decade and featured almost every major act of the day.  He worked in regular TV production, but nothing much came of that.  (Though he did create a failed sitcom with Norman Lear, featuring Paul Shaffer, about a bunch of old guys who are reincarnated into a hit band.)

By the 80s, Kirshner had earned more than enough to retire. (He'd earned more than enough by the early 60s, actually.) And that's what he did, apparently.  Perhaps he was tired, perhaps he didn't get MTV, who knows?  At least he seems to have voluntarily left the business, unlike so many who have to be dragged away, kicking and screaming.  I don't know what he did over the past few decades, but in the years he was active, he certainly was one of the top men in his field, and helped create a lot of good music.